Lottery to decide my life

Bethie, I am an academic refugee. That's why I have this job, where I get to go out and work with real people. I don't want to teach, at least for the next two decades. I love teaching and I'm good at it, but right now that lifestyle bores me and I don't find it satisfying. I need to "do" things.

I know it would probably be possible to work from Canada or Costa Rica. But me being here is crucial for daily contact with my boss, we get most work done face to face, and also for the fundraisins. I don't think it's possible to do over the phone. I go to NYC and D.C., which would still be possible, but it's not for me. This is already my SECOND home, I can't handle THIRD home. If I can't live in Boston, I'm going home.

haha, I said fundraisins... Almost makes it sound like fun.

Fundraisins?

The political necessities of next year's election have reached epidemic proportions.

ahh, the way I read their courses - they seemed much like the kind of work you'd been doing in India - but with a home base in Costa Rica for the Institute.

That may be, bethie. But I am not looking for a job. I have the best job I could ever dream of. So if I can't do my job from Boston, I'll move home and hopefully keep my job, work from there. But that would not be good from the organization's point of view right now.

dagmaraka :
this may be of NO help at all to you ... but here goes ...

"licensed" canadian professionals having their "domicile" in canada , can also work in the united states WITHOUT NEEDING A GREEN CARD -
i think this took effect under the "free trade-agreement" between the u.s. and canada .
i am a professional(licensed) accountant and would be able to offer my services to a u.s. corporation as a fee-based service - however , i would not NOT be allowed to be emplyed by a u.s. corporation .
to use an example :
a u.s. corporation or individual could contract for my services as a consultant and i would be allowed to perform those services in the u.s. without having to hold a "green card" .
similarly , professionals licensed in the united states are able to offer their services to canadian clients .
i believe one needs to be a "licensed professional " (examples : licensed accountants , lawyers , musicians ... ) to be able to take advantage of this exemption from the "green card" .

since i've been "out of circulation" for some years , i cannot give you all the details here , but would be happy to see if i can find out more about the current regulations if you think this might be useful to you .
take care !
hbg

unf*cking believable.

i thought immigration policies had gotten bad in holland the last years. but even in holland, if you find an employer who offers you a year or more job contract, and can show that they can't find someone to do your job within the EU (and this sounds like one of the rare cases where such a thing would be provable), you're in. No caps no lotteries. If anything, even while immigration in general is getting clamped down on ever more, the state is opening new opportunities for high-flyers, highly educated and qualified personnel.

i mean, what possible downside could there be in letting you in? you've got a job, your employer loves you, you're uniquely qualified, if you have to leave, your American organisation will have no end of trouble.

what shite. wishing you all the best, of course..

Thanks, nimh. As a matter of fact, we DID prove that there is nobody else for my job. It took a long time to get all the papers together for that.
I don't know why they ask people to do that when it apparently doesn't matter in the end. Hey, maybe I'll go work for EU or other "Man".

This bit, do reconsider. Seriously. I know how it might seem that way - how difficult it is to imagine getting all those day-to-day ideas and decisions worked out and sorted out through email or even phone. There is something about brainstorming together live, or being able to drop into the other's room for any little question that may come up, that, it's true, is hard to replace.

But it's not at all impossible, and if it's really that important for them to keep you (and I know it is), they can organise it, and vice versa. Why I'm saying this? Because my boss, a year ago, after five or six years living in Budapest and never getting rooted or coming to feel at home, with no social life to speak of, and after a decade or two spent abroad in different crisis areas (Kosovo, Rwanda, Bosnia), decided she'd had enough. She wanted back - to nice, gentle, small Oxford.

Now this seems a problem. We are a very small program - there were just six of us, minus outside experts and consultants. Six of us in the office. A pretty tightly-knit group, all in all. And she's a great boss, splendid exactly in the day-to-day communication and management, someone who makes you feel that you do great work, that you're trusted to organise your own work and make your own decisions, and at the same time that you're not in it alone, that you're not thrown in the deep end to sort it out for yourself. Encouraging yet scrupulous in detail.

Anyway - how could the program function without her being there? Well, it could. It took some getting used to, for sure. Email communication is by definition more awkward than live - little details get stuck in the pipeline, motivations aren't kindled as seamlessly. But all in all, it still works fine. We all have Skype, so there's chat, phone, there's conference calls when necessary, and she flies in every so often to arrange things in person. Meanwhile, we have produced two whole new sets of reports (the one you know of and a proper, full-scale set of final monitoring reports), they are as well-received as before, nothing practical went wrong.

All I'm saying is - it may seem awkward and even impossible, but if there's money for flying from across the Canadian border every month or two (and it sounds like they'd consider it worth it), then nowadays you get a lot further with chat, phone, email etc than you'd think. Its not ideal of course - again a new country - but it sure'd be a hell of a lot easier than setting up your own comparable organisation in Vienna let alone Bratislava.

Yeah at least now that Slovakia's in the EU you wouldnt only end up into the same kind of trouble looking for work in Brussels. Though the CoE or OSCE sounds more "you" than the EU. Or hell, you could come work for Mr. Soros

What's the OSCE High Commissioner for Minorities doing these days? Haven't heard a peep outta there since Max van der Stoel. Maybe I could have his job!

Rolf Ekeus (Swedish) has that job since 2001.

You should notify them that you're free now for it :wink: :wink:

Ooops: hurry!

Good point, its true I was thinking of van der Stoel, but he's long gone.. its Rolf Ekeus now. He's certainly been less visible..

There's ODIHR too though - they're OSCE as well.. Election observations? Roma and Sinti? Democratization trainings?

I don't think so.

Roma maybe.... but I would want to do what I do now and that's particularly difficult in Roma setting. Since the historical narrative of the Roma is deeeeeeeeeply suppressed there on both sides it's kinda hard to do conciliation through historical memory. First I'd have to force them to invent their historical memory... convince them that that's what they want.... Not sure if it's the right audience for what I do. Balkans, sure... Roma, dunno, maybe, dunno how. Or Slovaks-Hungarians, but that topic makes me slightly nauseous (the Dissertation effect)...
Bottom line: I love my job and don't want any other!!!

Geez, when I read 1:2.3 I was heartened. Then I saw 1:4 or 5. Then I saw the news about the green card. Up-down-up-down.

Perhaps we should start a shrine...? Leave sweets out for Ganesh.

and that's obviously the number one, numero uno desired result!

soooooooo ....

(vegan butter tarts)

(errr cupcakes)

dagmaraka I realize you are not in that 20,000 that are exempt. The way I read that was the USCIS doesn't know how many of those 150,000 have the
20,000 that are exempt. Since they are in a different category from the 150,000 then until the USCIS goes through them they don't know how
many are included. Doesn't that mean up to 20,000 could possibly have to be taken out of the 150,000 number since it is two different categories?

I don't know that much about it, am I reading and understanding it wrong?

Right now I am actually ashamed to know the USA, our government, our people are doing this. Punish people like yourself who contribute to this country and follow the rules to be here and then allow illegal immigrants who did not follow the rules to stay here. We reward the guilty and punish the innocent. That to me is a complete travesty.

tth, i honestly hope they are taken out, or have been applying as a separate group from the beginning.
if not, my odds are only worse, as that would mean lessening the number of slots available for the rest of us in the 150,000 (which is now apparently more like 200,000) miserable pool. 1:7? 1:8?
I'll worry once I know I've been denied. Until then I have no energy left to think about it.

Bethie, thanks a ton, but.... vegan? What am I, a goat?

See if I didn't know they're vegan, I'd probably just inhale them and loved them. Now I'm suspicious.

Now latkes...preferably with bacon...anytime! (I'm dieting and very very hungry).